Characterization of a C-RED One camera for astrophotonical applications

TL;DR

This paper characterizes a C-RED One camera for astrophotonics, establishing a reliable method to calculate system gain at various avalanche gains and analyzing its impact on dynamic range.

Contribution

It introduces a stable method for calculating system gain at any avalanche gain, improving accuracy in astrophotonic applications.

Findings

System gain can be accurately modeled as a linear function of avalanche gain.

Effective system gain allows precise conversion from electrons to ADUs.

Avalanche gain has a stable impact on the camera's dynamic range.

Abstract

To better understand the impact of the avalanche gain applied in the detector technology and apply this technology in our in-house astrophotonic projects, we have characterized a C-RED One camera and produced a stable and reliable method for calculating the system gain at any desired avalanche gain setting. We observed that depending on how the system gain is obtained, multiplying the system gain times the avalanche gain may not accurately produce a conversion factor from electrons to ADUs. Since the acquisition of a photon transfer curve (PTC) was possible at different avalanche gain levels, several PTCs at low avalanche gain levels were acquired. Consequently, a linear fit was produced from the acquired system gain as a function of the avalanche gain setting. Through the linear fit, the effective system gain was calculated at any desired avalanche level. The effective system gain makes possible to accurately calculate the initial system gain without the ambiguity introduced by the non-linearity of the system. Besides, the impact of the avalanche gain on the dynamic range was also analyzed and showed a stable behaviour through the measured avalanche range.